Robin: All right, in this episode, greetings everyone.

Brian: As you may already know, Robin is away for the month building the MotorcycleTraining.us website. It's going to be great. It's going to be really cool. Yeah, you're going to love it. So filling the shoes this round again is my friend and yours, Neil Sullivan. So we'll insert the sound of clapping and applause, a massive crowd. I don't know. So welcome back, Neil. Thank you. Good to see you again.

Neil: It's great to be here with you. Excellent.

Brian: So in this episode coming up, we're tired. We're tired. Specifically, we feel the few tire questions we're starting to see more and more. They're kind of newbie questions, but they're also kind of counterintuitive stuff. Just mainly, you know, when you see something on your tire, just calm down, people. Don't call your lawyer when your tires start looking funny. It's fine. Michelin does know what they're doing. Then we'll touch on several topics relating to the mental side of motorcycling. Neil's got a story or two and some wisdom. And also, if anybody asks, yeah, we're slow. We, yeah, top speed, what, 45, 50, something like that. And then we'll dissect some common nuggets of motor wisdom and try to make them make sense. Later on, Jordan Lehman wraps up George Wyman's epic 1903 motorcycle journey across an entire US of damn a going to be epic. Can't wait for that. All right. So in our opening banter is like, as we like to call it. So Neil, did you ride today?

Neil: I did not. I did not join the club. Yeah. You were hanging with your family.

Brian: Yeah.

Neil: Nice.

Brian: Nice. Cookout. Saw some people, some nieces, nephews, grand nieces or grand nephews, not grand nieces. Yeah. A lot of fun. Didn't get to ride though. Sorry.

Neil: Yeah. I was writing a bit more due to my SUV having some, I don't know what, well, I finally figured it out. I went to two different shops and they did alignment. And the last one said, Oh, we balanced all four wheels and we fixed it. And both of them said they fixed it, but I get on the highway over 70. It was wiggling on the backend turns. So I bought a set of wheels, got a nice deal from Costco, put them on there hoping it would fix the problem and it fixed the problem. Yes.

Brian: So really like the wheels themselves, the, the, the rims, as they say.

Neil: The rims, that was the issue. And yeah, so I don't know why two legitimate shops couldn't figure it out, but anyway, I was glad it solved the problem. Yeah. That's annoying. Yes. Um, but I was up in Chicago, got a chance to get it up over 70 on the way up and back and worked out great. And the weekend, um, two of my other expensive, semi-expensive hobbies took precedent. One is watches and the other one is bourbon. And Friday, there was a watch show called wind up Chicago, which was a ton of fun, bunch of micro brands and stuff. And they're in there once, you know, they go to Chicago once a year, they're there. Although they were there the whole weekend. So that was fun. And then yesterday was a bourbon crawl through Barrington.

Brian: Oh, that sounds like fun.

Neil: It was delicious. It worked out really well. How about yourself?

Brian: Good. Uh, well I am, uh, it, it's a long story, but anyway, and a former neighbor of mine, you know, when, when people find out you're good at fixing stuff, they bring you stuff to fix and it can get a little much at times, but anyway, I'm really tired of these chainsaws are kind of kicking my ass. Two cycle engines are just the devil. I'm just, I'm just tired of it. Um, uh, continuing to basically perfect my Toyota minivan, uh, get some suspension work done on that. Uh, should, should see the, it should get the suspension work done later this week. I got an alignment schedule on Thursday, uh, to, cause when you replace stuff, you know, things are not quite, it's, it's the same. So you got to get it aligned after that. And then a few other odds and ends to deal with later that fall. Um, and Robert and I kind of talked about this a little bit, uh, a couple of weeks ago, but, uh, the Rob, Robert and I both were, you know, we just kept seeing each other, but we, we had an Epic onslaught of just moto kick assery had an incredible spring, um, April, New Mexico. Then I did a dual sport ride at, at the very beginning of May, late April. Then I did, um, then there was some stuff in the middle there. There was a track day. There was a, uh, uh, Brown County rally all in one. And, and there was the triple sevens at the end of May. I was part of that and Rob, it was anyway, it was an onslaught and I, I, I incurred a lot of debt and it's more like that personal and professional debt. You got to pay back all this time away. And I've just about caught up, I think, uh, and kind of at the end of that tunnel. Uh, so got some writing plan for this coming weekend. Um, got some training set up for the fall, really considering another track day. Um, yeah, maybe we'll talk about that later. Um, and the odds of me showing up in Missouri in September are starting to improve. I think I'm going to be able to make that happen. That's going to be great.

Neil: That's exciting.

Brian: Yeah. Missouri is always great. Uh, and of course, uh, the Kentucky season season, uh, finale is always a good one. Um, so yeah, hoping, hoping to get some, uh, hoping to get some good two wheel time in August somewhere along the way. So should be a good time.

Neil: Nice. Yeah. Well, you know, I always look forward to the Ozarks getting down to Missouri.

Brian: Yeah. You seem to have really liked that. That's your jam in a hundred percent.

Neil: Maybe it's, uh, I just find with those clean roads, no cops, no stoplights, no traffic, no stop signs.

Brian: Yeah.

Neil: That, and those nice sweepers, you can really just be a lot more aggressive.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. It's just a ton of fun. Can't wait to make it happen. All right. Our next segment. Um, usually we have listener questions. If we, you know, if we get a question, uh, that we like, and we'll, we'd like to provide an answer. Uh, sometimes we pick out questions from the wild and, and this time around, I have a couple of questions from the wild that, uh, I've been seeing more and more, and maybe, I don't know, maybe I should just frequent different places, but these are ones I see on a different websites. And so I'm just going to paraphrase them. So first one off is a really common question. And I think this pops up more because adventure riding quotes around adventure is getting more and more popular. The more we pave, the more people are buying dual sport bikes for some reason. Anyway, it's a big segment. It's a big segment of the market. And so you get a lot of people who have done a lot of street writing, but they're new to dual sport writing and it goes something like this. Hey, my dual sport bikes front tire is looking really strange. What's wrong with my bike? Did I get a defective tire? Who do I sue about this? I am big mad. Um, yeah. And the answer to this is really simple. There's nothing wrong with your bike. Hate to break it to you. Nothing wrong with your bike, nothing wrong with your tire. Um, and this is, it's, it's normal. It's positively 1000% normal expected. But what happens when you have a chunky tread or a knobby tire and you ride it a lot on pavement, like more than half pavement, which is pretty much all of us who ride dual sport, you know, pavement is just part of life. Um, you'll get these really weird wear after a while. It looks like every other knob is worn and every other knob is sticking up and people see that for the first time. And they're like, what's going on. Um, that's just how it is. The explanation involves a lot of calculus and words like hysteresis and elasticity and things like that. Don't worry about it, but it's normal. Nothing wrong with your bike. It's just how it works on dual sport tires. Um, it's not dangerous. So if you just want to put up with it, uh, put up with, there's a little buzz, a little vibration, maybe on pavement or whatever. So put up with it or replace the tires, them's your choices. Um, and that's just how it works. Knobby tires, chunky tread, you know, any of those high void treads you have on dual sport bikes. So have you seen this on, I mean, you've, you've got more of a dirt bike, dirt bike. So have you seen this sort of thing happening or that hasn't even bothered you?

Neil: I can't say I have, but, um, yeah, I guess for those who have, I guess now they know don't worry about it.

Brian: Don't worry about it.

Neil: That's cool. Forget about it. Yeah. I've, uh, well before my current bike, the WR four 50 for off-roading, um, I was on rental bikes and they barely had any tread left. It seemed like anytime I would rent them. So I know like that DR six 50 with almost no tread trying to go. I could barely get out of puddles in an uphill climb, you know, I remember that.

Brian: Yeah, that was, that was fun. Yeah. And you know, and also you were just kind of at the beginning of your dual sport journey then, like you didn't know much. And I think about some of the stuff I did early on. I'm like, oh yeah, that, that would have been no problem, but it, it scared the hell out of me the first, you know, that, you know, 10 years ago or whatever.

Neil: Yeah. I do remember Denny though. Denny was on a nice light. I don't know what bike he had, but you're, you know, Denny, what a little Kawasaki.

Brian: Yeah.

Neil: Yeah. And, um, he kept telling us, man, you guys are working a lot harder than we are. And when I finally got on John R's WR four 50, which I ended up buying off of them and found out what real tread is like an actual power and a real suspension and a light bike. It was like being on a magic carpet.

Brian: Oh yeah.

Neil: It's like cheating.

Brian: That's true. Yeah. Being able to do much off road on a KLR six 50 is impressive on a certain level to certain people. Cause it's so big.

Neil: One of those people that's impressed. Yeah.

Brian: All right. The second tire question I'm going to get to, uh, this is the second most common, or maybe it's the first most, depending on what circles you run in. It's like, Hey, what's this black line around the circumference of my tire tread? Just off center. Is my tire defective? Is it damaged? What's wrong with my bike? Is it going to explode? Who can I Sue about this dangerous abomination?

Neil: All right, people, this voice that you have for these questions is it's tough, man.

Brian: It's, it's, it's tough to sustain this anyway. It's, it's based on a guy in one of my, uh, psychology classes in, uh, in college. And, and this guy would like sit up front and raise his hand at a giant lecture hall and delay every class with, with dumb questions. So that's his voice. And, uh, so we, we call them a squeaker, like up squeakers squeaking again.

Neil: And they usually like to ask the questions at the very end when everybody's ready to go. And the professor says, okay, if there's no more questions.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah.

Neil: Oh yeah. Yeah.

Brian: Um, so anyway, yeah, that was a digression anyway. Um, so the black line around your tire, again, that's, that's normal expected. It's healthy. It's all natural. It's organic. It's good for you. Uh, what that is is called an antenna tread. And it's a, it's basically a tiny little area. That's a little more conductive rubber that goes all the way around the tire. And the idea is that, uh, tires, rubber tires are an insulator. And again, it's complicated physics, but they build up static electricity as they roll along. And the antenna tread basically grounds the tire to the ground. Um, so it makes, basically makes a ground connection to the ground, the pavement or whatever lets that static charge dissipate through there. Um, like I remember, I don't know, I'm a certain age, you're a certain age. And like in our twenties, if like, if you got out of a car or if you got off your bike on a dry day, sometimes you'd get a little static shock and it hasn't happened for a long time because they put antenna treads in tires to, to take out the, uh, static electricity. And, you know, obviously you don't want sparks because a lot of times you're at a gas station, you know, that that's how say no more, that would be bad. That could be bad. So, uh, again, if you see a black line going all the way around your tire, that's great. Don't worry about it. It's an antenna tread. Google the term. You'll get all the information you need. Um, the other thing sometimes people will see and they'll panic about is, uh, on some dual compound tires where it's harder in the center and softer on the edges, once in a while, after a while, you can start to see the border between those layers of rubber. Um, sometimes it's straight, sometimes it's a wavy blah, blah, blah. Uh, again, nothing to worry about it. Uh, just, just go to YouTube, look up some videos of manufacturing motorcycle tires and you kind of see how they're made out of layers of rubber. And there's actually a kind of a surprising amount of hand labor that goes into these motorcycle tires are handmade in a lot of ways. Um, so you'll see, you'll see when they layer the rubber on kind of how that works and you'll see once in a while, you'll be able to just barely be able to see the border between the, the layers once in a while. Not a big deal. No big deal. Don't worry about it.

Neil: Cool. Boy, I learned something new there. I've never heard of this.

Brian: Oh, did you never heard of that? Yes. All right. So stop calling your lawyer about the weird stuff on your tires. No. Um, speaking of tires, if you ride a sport touring motorcycle, just a quick reminder that if you ride, if you ride a sport touring motorcycle, you're, you're always in the market for sport touring motorcycle tires. So, uh, we've done what we can to help ease the pain with the TRO rubber watch. So it's a list of, uh, a bunch of different sport touring tires and the most common sizes that we use, uh, with current pricing, we keep track of pricing and we put in reviews for tires that we have experience with. So visit TRO.bike, look under digi tools and look for road rubber rankings. So if you'd like us to field your questions, email podcast at TRO.bike, that's podcast at TRO.bike. We will listen. We will consider these questions and we may even come up with an answer and put it in a podcast. All right, Neil, uh, Neil's Neil's, uh, making some changes. Neil's got a couple of stories to tell us. So the next segment, uh, I just decided to call it the mega mental mind meld. Um, we've just got a lot of different things that, that I think are going to be interesting to touch on, uh, on the mental side of motorcycling, getting your head in the game, um, keeping your head in the game, that kind of thing. Um, so Neil, what are, what are some of the, what are some of the sayings or some of the things you've heard, or what are some of your favorite writing wisdom things that you've heard?

Neil: Yeah, you know, it was funny because when you and I were spitballing ideas to talk about this, a story came to mind for me that was, I, I got all excited. I was actually skiing, downhill skiing at Chestnut mountain in Galena, Illinois with my son. He was like eight or 10. He was relatively new snowboarder. And at this, um, Hill, you have to go down the easy slope or run before you can get to the good stuff. And then when you get to the bottom, you jump on the left and you go to a different part of the Hill. And now you've got some good runs that are higher level, but it was a Saturday with some decent snowfall, recent snowfall. So the place was packed. And, uh, we get to the bottom of the Hill, we get on a, the ski lift and my son is a little frustrated. And he says, what, what was going on there? Everybody was just skiing right at us. And, and he's right. They were all skiing at us like zombies. And I got all excited because I'm like, I know what this is. Let me explain.

Brian: A little dad dropping it wisdom on you.

Neil: All right.

Brian: Yeah.

Neil: It's called target fixation. I, and I told them, they're looking at you thinking, don't hit that guy. Don't hit that guy. But of course you go where you look and it's the same thing on motorcycles. And, uh, that's one of those lessons that I think new riders, especially struggle with. But I thought that was funny. And of course, you know, I, I just got all excited when, when the topic came up.

Brian: Yeah. Cause even, even at that age, you're like, man, I'm, I'm slowly becoming like really dorky and, you know, and I need to, I need to retain relevance with my kid. Um, this is a, this is an awful story, but it's also kind of shows the other side of target fixation. What, uh, so my, my second broken leg, um, came about, uh, because, uh, it was a classic, uh, car turn left in front of me and like she did, you know, the driver did this triple fake, you know, double reverse. Yeah. Maybe. Yeah. No. Yeah. Maybe. Yeah. Anyway, totally. Anyway, fake me out any hit me. I went flying, broke my leg and everything. So anyway, I'm, I'm on the grounds, you know, a couple dozen feet away. Um, you know, cops and EMTs are asking me, you know, Hey, what, what happened? What happened? And I said, yeah, car turned left in front of me. I hit the car here. I am legs busted, you know, not a good day. And, um, and the cop asked me, well, what kind of car did you hit? And I was like, I have no idea. And I was really proud of the fact that I did not know what anything about what the car looked like, because I was, it didn't turn out well, but I wasn't looking at the car. I was, I was very, very deliberately, very clearly doing everything I could to look at it anywhere to avoid this car and look anywhere, but the car. So I'm oddly proud of that fact.

Neil: That makes sense.

Brian: Well, but you know, I did my best and, and where, where the car hit me and, you know, so where, where the impact was on the car and where the impact was on me and the bike, uh, I almost made it, which is the heartbreaking part. Like I, it was like the, the far bumper and just kind of the backside of the engine, you know, just man, three more, two, two more feet, maybe three, I would have made it, but it had a story, but had a different story. Yeah. Yeah. So if you ever had, if you ever had someone, uh, come up and tell you about their, uh, you know, the, they had a layer down the store stories or don't touch that front break or ain't those old biker wisdom thing.

Neil: Oh my gosh. It seems like every other time you're, you're, you're at a gas station, you hear a story, you know, break your neck.

Brian: Yeah.

Neil: Oh yeah. Yep. Yep. I've heard that one too.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. Now don't touch that front break. It'll throw you right over the bars. And I've heard that one. Yeah. I, I don't get it.

Neil: Yeah. The scary advice that people are giving out there, that ignorant people are giving is scary.

Brian: Yeah. I have, I've had pit people like we've all had this people walk up, ain't you hot and all that. And so several times I've been, I've, I've, I've kind of gone into like nerd mode and say, well, no, actually look at, you know, if you look closely, this is, this is mesh and, and, and air comes through it like a screen door and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, I'll, I'll just get real enthusiastic about it and they'll just kind of back away. You know, they, you go, you go sweat in your leather vests there, buddy, but yeah.

Neil: Well, and I've had people, they'll see me taking my helmet out of the ice machine or the ice cabinet that's outside of a gas station. Cause that's usually where I stick it while we're inside getting something to drink or life pro tip people.

Brian: Yeah.

Neil: Yeah. And I have had some people say, aha, that's a good idea. Yeah. But we, everybody asks that about us wearing our protective gear in the summer. And there's been times when you, you and I have been riding in Indiana where it's over a hundred. Yeah. So it is hot when you're not moving.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. Get moving. There's nothing here at this gas station. That's interesting. Nothing. Well, okay. I've been the one gas station where, yeah, it was pretty interesting. It was like a small, tiny backward town on Halloween. And I could have, I could have stuck around there. That was interesting.

Neil: The exception that proves the rule.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. Most of the time, nothing to see here. Let's get moving people. Yeah. I thought, I thought you had an interesting comment and I wasn't quite sure what you meant, but I think I know what you mean. And it was something about, I don't want to be known as the fast guy.

Neil: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I guess that does need further explanation.

Brian: I have a take on that. What's your take?

Neil: My take. Yeah. Personally, I don't ever want to be known as the fast guy because I don't want my ego to get involved. I don't want to feel like I have to live up to something and be that fast guy. Um, and that's when you might get yourself out over your skis, especially now that I'm getting a bit older, it's just not, I'm not into it. I'm it's not that important to me. And it's funny. We were talking about this before the show, but a common question is, Hey, what's the top speed you got your bike up to? And I don't even know the answer to that. That's really not the kind of writing I like to do. It's more about carving and hitting the twisties and, um, I don't know, quality of writing rather than just flat out speed.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. Like, well, if you go back to like the, there's a famous article called the pace, you know, writing the pace, you're, you're, you're not exceeding the speed limit on the straights or anything like that. You're, you know, you're saving all the fun for the lean angle. You're not, you're not, you know, any, any idiot can yank the wires and go fast. So yeah. And, and when people find out, I went to a track day and they asked me how, Oh, how fast did you go? And they're like, I don't know. I actually followed their suggestion and put tape over the speedometer. And I don't know what the numbers say, you know, judging by the gear and the RPM, it may have been 120, 130 around in there. And on, you know, just on like Blackhawk farms, a smallish track, but yeah, people that that's what they want to know. It's like, well, no, look here, let me, let me show you this picture of me. You know, I, I, I, I'm a sucker. I bought the pictures, you know, and, and, and like two of the pictures, I look like I sort of know what I'm doing. Um, and I don't know, it doesn't seem to impress, doesn't seem to impress the muggles, you know, the people don't know. Um, but yeah, that whole fast guy thing I've this it's happened several times where we're, we're at a rally or gathering or whatever. And, and, and usually I end up leading a group and there's someone new going around and he's kind of got that, that, that shifty Sammy squirrel. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Fast guy. Fast. Where's the, and he'll, he's asking around or who's, who, where's the fast group? Where's the fast group, fast group, fast group, fresh group. And it's kind of like, it's not about that. It's not about the pace or whatever. I'll ride with anybody. I'll, you know, we'll just wait at the intersections. Now we talked about, you know, the way we do things, it really doesn't matter. It really doesn't take that long. Even if you're riding with people who have a much more relaxed pace, no big deal, but people don't get that, you know, that's, it's a little more complicated, but yeah, you, so I've had, yeah, we've been, I've been kind of gathering up the people I'm going to ride with that day and we're getting ready to leave. And then, and then you'll see some squirrel guy going around asking, and you'll see people pointing my, and it's like, no, no, don't point at us. Stop that. Don't send them over here. I'm sorry. Yeah. You kind of get the, kind of get those shifty shifty squirrel types sometimes. So yeah, I don't. And again, yeah, you don't want egos have no place on the street or the track really. It's just enjoying yourself, you know, enjoying exercising, enjoying extra, the exercise of your, of your engine and sidewalls, you know, it's good stuff.

Neil: Yes. I like it. So another one of my nuggets is, and I learned this the hard way is when I am fatigued, my judgment goes. And I'm too fatigued to have the judgment to know that my judgment is not there and I make mistakes.

Brian: It's like being drunk. You don't know you're, you don't, yeah, you don't know you're drunk.

Neil: Yes, that's right. Yeah. So with, yeah, with the age comes wisdom and the experience of having learned that lesson a couple of times the hard way, I really am careful now. So, and, you know, I bowed out after not having a good night's sleep, you know, a couple of times. Yeah. Yeah. And Robin still makes fun of me the time I pulled over and took a nap. But those 10, 15, 20 minute naps, those power naps can make a massive difference.

Brian: Hey, you know, that's, that's whatever it takes. You know, one of my principles when I'm leading a ride is if somebody wants to bow out, it is always a good decision. I mean, we're there to ride. We all have fun writing. If someone has decided that it's it, they don't need to explain, although they're welcome to whatever, no problem. You know, it's, it's, it's always a good decision in my book. Yeah. You kind of, yeah. And there's, there's a lot of factors to go into that. You know, did you get a good night's sleep? If you had too much caffeine or you're all buzzy and vibratey, you know are you stressed out, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. We talked about that a little bit last time, you know, you had a stressful time in your life and you decided, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to put this to the side and plus it was sort of winter coming. So, you know, but, but yeah, you, you, you kind of had to put, put writing to the side for a while until you're able to, to bring all your attention to it. Cause it is one of those whole brain things. You have to have all, everything functioning to get there.

Neil: Yeah. That's so true. And some people can't maintain that level of focus for a long period of time. And if they can be self-aware and recognize that and adjust accordingly, that being self-aware thing is kind of a big deal.

Brian: Yeah. And there's kind of like in aviation, there's a lot of aviation concepts, aviation safety concepts that are really applicable to motorcycling or anything that's really challenging. Um, but anyway, one of these is called I'm safe and it's an acronym and it stands for illness, medication, stress, alcohol, fatigue, and emotion. And so you kind of, it's, it's like a check yourself before you wreck yourself or a whole airliner full of people. Um, Oh, that's good. Yeah. It's, it's, it, there's a lot of these really good, uh, mnemonic things in aviation, but like, uh, yeah, I'm, am I sick? You know, I'm able to fly, you know, especially for people flying, but same thing on a motorcycle. If you're, if you're too sick, you know, you, you may need to think of something else to do that day. Uh, medications, obvious stress. We talked about that alcohol. Um, what are the things you'll find, you know, like at the, for example, the Brown County rally or the different events or a Robbins tours, things like that is, um, sure. Have some alcohol with, you know, have some good bourbon with dinner, whatever, but stop at a certain point. You know, there's, you know, if you can't stop, then don't start, but it's one of those, you know, like you can see, and you see the same thing in pilots. Yeah. They'll have a beer or two with dinner and that's it. Um, you know, with us, we'll have some bourbon, have some fine libations and, and then there's a certain point where you stop because, okay, I'm 57 years old and I need to get up in the morning and I want to go ride and I want to go have fun. I don't want to be hungover. I'm not 24 anymore. You know? Um, and I've seen people who like, yeah, they get a little too enthusiastic overnight and Saturday morning. They're like, nope, I was kind of howling at the moon Friday. I'm going to take it easy today. And that's all cool. And, and emotion, you know, like if you're upset, uh, angry, something's wrong, something's wrong back home, something's wrong at work, kind of, kind of goes along with the stress, I think. But, uh, one of the things that gets really tricky is when you're like you're a hundred miles from base camp or something, and you're dealing with an issue here, uh, when you're dealing with one of these issues. And so what do you do? How do you get back? You know, how do you at least get back to home base or to the new destination or whatever? Um, that always gets really tricky. Like if I'm leading a ride, I'm always, there's one of the articles, uh, that I wrote on that's sitting on TRO dot bike about the 10 commandments of, of leading a sport touring ride. And one of those is, is thou shalt keep an eye on thy flock. So you kind of watch for these things, watch for these things in yourself, and then also watch for them and other people. And 99% of the time, the answer is to stop and do something about it. You know, nobody, there's not a lot of circumstances where you have to ride somewhere and be there at a certain time. At least, at least you shouldn't, hopefully you don't construct your life that way too much, but yeah.

Neil: And it's, it's a terrible thing to overdo it on a motorcycle. It's uh, it's not ideal.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. A lot of times just, just stopping more often, like on, like on very hot days, like it was very hot at the last Brown County rally. So I stopped a lot more often than I usually do for myself and for everybody with me just stop, you know, maybe go in and get some air conditioning, maybe stay outside and stay acclimated. You know, everybody has a different balance, how they handle heat, uh, drink a lot more water than usual, that kind of thing. Um, so we did, you know, like we may have, where we normally would do 250, 280, 300 miles. We did maybe 200 miles, you know, and I kind of deliberately, I knew it was going to be stinking hot. So I planned everything around that from the beginning, but, uh, you know, or if people are fatigued, stop, drink some water, eat a little snack, you know, that kind of thing. Um, carry water, carry snacks with you, you know, that kind of thing. Uh, gas station food isn't the best usually.

Neil: And we all have our staples that we can find in the gas station though.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Peanuts. They'll usually, they'll get, they'll do the trick usually a little, little jerky, maybe. Yes. Usually they have water and stuff like, um, it hasn't happened in a long time and maybe I'm just picky about the people I ride with, but, um, I've had instances where people are starting to get mad about something. Um, and we kind of had to stop and, and a lot of times it's not, I've had instances in the past where people are angry and mainly it's because they're frightened and it comes out as anger, especially with American male persons. Um, you can't, you can't just say you're scared or at least people think you can't. I say it all the time. You're like, oh, yes, you know, I'm scaring myself or I'm, I'm in over my head or we're, we're too far. I don't know where we are. You know, they get anxious, whatever. And so that comes out as anger. Sometimes, you know, I've had people get angry. It's like, you know, you should slow down. You should wait, you know, stuff like that. So pull over, you know, again, the, the solution for all these stop and deal with it. Don't just keep, you know, don't just keep going and keep going and keep going. Uh, sometimes it's as simple as just share more information with people. Like when I ride with you, Neil, you don't care where we are. You don't want to know. True. I ride with a lot of people who just don't like, I don't care. Okay. So in about 30 miles, we're going to do this. Oh yeah. Shut up.

Neil: Yeah. It's all, it's going to be awesome. Um, I'm happy as a pig in mud. Yeah. There's, there's going to be a lunch somewhere probably, you know, I mean, yeah, I'm just focused on the ride, but yeah, I, I have seen, I think we were down in Missouri. There was a guy who it was really bizarre. He was one of those angry guys in the middle of the day. Um, and it's like, Hey, somebody planned this route for you. You don't have to do anything, but follow. And maybe you're right. Maybe that that's what his deal was that what I'm always impressed by. And I know in Brown County, we had, uh, uh, a new guy ride with us and he was slower and he rode his own ride. And like you said, when there was a turn or an intersection, you would chill and wait for him. And, and we both tipped our hats to him. Like, Oh man, it's so good that you're just riding your own ride way better than somebody getting out over their own skis.

Brian: Yeah. That's really hard to do. Uh, it's, it's, it's, you hear that a lot and it's really hard to actually just fricking do that. And, um, and, and again, we never had to wait very long. Um, and as the day went on, you know, I was, I was kind of checking into them quite a bit just to kind of get an idea of where he was at and stuff like that. But it really, it really, uh, it went great. He had a great time. He saw, I mean, we all saw roads that we didn't anticipate seeing, uh, but, uh, we had a hell of a good time. And, um, yeah, he absolutely paid no attention to what we were doing other than, Oh, Hey, they're, they're at the intersection. I guess we're going to turn right. You know? And that is exactly the way to do that.

Neil: Um, I know even in, uh, David, what is it? Huff, uh, proficient motorcycling, his book, he covers this and articulates it really well. And I know when I was a young guy, I made the mistake of trying to keep up with some people and it got me in trouble. So, um, that's a guy that actually his book, any new rider, I always pointed out to them, make sure that they read it.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. It was a David Huff proficient motorcycling. I believe. Yeah. Got it right over there on the shelf. Yeah. It's got a lot of, it's a lot of survival advice for street riding, which is where we all are, you know, and, and things like a twist of the wrist and total control. Those are, those are like theory and physics and a little bit more for track riding. Uh, although they do talk about the difference between track and street riding, things like that, but yeah, those, yeah, they're great books for really getting your mind. Okay. This is what I need to look at next time I'm out. And it's a little bit like, um, one of the other sayings that we keep hearing is, um, you can re you can repeat the same mistakes for 20 years, you know, so it doesn't mean because you've been riding for 20 years doesn't mean you have 20 years of experience. It means you have some, sometimes it can mean you have the same, the same year, 20 times the same mistakes and so forth. And although books don't teach you physical skills, the way coaching can and things like that, coaching and practice can, they can kind of point you toward ways to, Oh yeah. Open your mind, explore, expand a little bit, that kind of thing. Um, yeah, great way to do it. And the simplest thing I always tell people ride your own ride. Okay. How do I do that? The, the simplest thing to do is simply let the person in front of you disappear and then proceed. Um, what gets people into trouble is, is not so much the, the speed or the whatever of trying to keep up, uh, what gets them in trouble is that they're not paying attention to what they're doing. They're paying attention to what somebody else is doing and on a different piece of the road. Um, so it's not so much a skill question or pace question or anything like that. It's a question of, Hey, you're splitting your attention and that's not good. Um, so a good, good friend of mine I've ridden with a lot and he's very skilled writer. Uh, they say, if we go riding, you know, usually I'm the one who knows where I'm going. And, uh, so he'll just, he'll just sit there and wait until I'm out of sight and then he'll, and then he'll take off. He doesn't want to see, he doesn't want to see anybody in front of them and simple enough. And again, it's 30 to 60 seconds of waiting at the intersections, you know, who cares? It's fine. No big deal. Your bike's not going to overheat, but yeah, that's a real simple way to actually do that. Cause you hear that, but how do you do that? You hear ride your own ride. Well, that just let people disappear. It's fine. Let them know what you're doing. Maybe I don't know, but you know, don't, don't look at them or does it like it? I like it. Yeah. So I was going to say, um, kind of one of those things when you, when you're talking about riding your own ride, how do you actually do that? One of those things is more, how do you recognize in yourself that you're kind of getting caught up? You know, that you're like, oh, wait, I need to, you know, sometimes it's that people start feeling competitive, for example, or you're like, oh, I got to go, got to go. You're like, oh, wait, wait, no, I need to do this. Um, one of the things I used to notice, like, I kind of got over this, maybe I'm just getting old, but I kind of got over this. But one of the things I used to notice was I would get tired, like my hands, like I would start gripping the grips really, really tight when I was like, and I was like, wait, no, I don't need to keep up that. Don't use those words. Those are bad words. But like, I would, you know, like my arms would get tired. I get arm pumped from, from keeping up with people and stuff like that. Um, and also things like, like I talked about earlier, the, the anger, confusion, things like that. What the hell are we doing? Why, you know, what's wrong with this guy, anything, anytime where you're worrying about someone else is just, that's a sign to, you know, whoa, check, stop, let them get out of sight, do your own thing, do some breathing so forth. But what are the, what are, I mean, we talked about stopping and talking about just making that decision before the ride, or even during the ride to just go back or, or whatever, you know, are there some ways you have Neil for just kind of dealing with things when you're on the road or you really do want to get somewhere?

Neil: Oh, what do you mean?

Brian: Like, as far as riding your own ride or, um, yeah, all the above are dealing with fatigue or, you know, getting through a long day. Like, um, let's say, let's say you get on your gold wing and you head to Chicago, which is just, uh, you know, you're heading up, heading up to interstate, you know, how do you, how do you keep fatigue at bay? How do you, how do you stay interested, stay awake?

Neil: Yeah. You know, it's funny because especially for the longer trips, first of all, I like to be very thorough at the breaks, make sure I've got everything done, take a bathroom break, get something to drink, get something to eat, make sure I'm comfortable, cool off, stick my helmet in the ice chest if I have to, um, so that I get as much as I can done so that when I'm on the road, I can cover as much ground. If it's a longer trip, that's one thing. And then the other thing is I'm always just kind of looking at, um, how many miles are left, how much time until the destination, how much, you know, how many miles have passed in the odometer, anything to kind of put, pick a threshold to pass to keep things interesting. Yeah. Just to, just to recognize the progression when you're on a long trip. Those are a couple of things that I like to do.

Brian: Yeah. Just, Oh yeah. Here's that town with a funny name. He, he, he, you know, dumb stuff. And, and do you, do you listen to music when you ride or I don't remember.

Neil: I'm a big fan of cranking the tunes. Yeah.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. That can help. I've, I don't know. Maybe I need to pick different music because, uh, I find it tends to affect my mental state and I just, I've gave up on that a long time ago.

Neil: No kidding. Oh, I love it. It's one of my favorite things.

Brian: Yeah. It would be, I would be good to, you know, and also to pass the time and on a long highway segment, stuff like that. Maybe I should, maybe I should shut it off in the twisties and turn it on when I'm just making miles. Don't know. Maybe I need to get back into that. Now that Bluetooth has gotten a lot better.

Neil: Well, and I will say that in the beginning of the season, I will not listen to anything until I know I'm, I'm back. You know, I get, I've got my game back and I'm comfortable again. So it could be several rides before I'm like, all right, I'm good. I can listen to tunes again. That's a great year. I start that way where I I'm not listening to anything.

Brian: That's a great idea. Yeah. Well, maybe we'll do an episode on spring rituals or something next year. Oh, crafty. Go through how you do that. Moments in motorcycle history with Jordan Liebman. Folks, the day has come. Jordan Liebman's recap of George Wyman's journey across the U.S. is coming to an end. Stick around for the epic finale. Mr. Liebman, take it away. Take us back to 1903 and take George Wyman to the end of his incredible journey.

Jordan: June 28th, 730 AM. He leaves C-O-N-N-E-A-U-T, Ohio. And 10 miles later, all of the oil had leaked out of the crankcase because his lead job failed and his belt broke again. But he made it to Pennsylvania along Lake Erie, riding the footpaths along the side of the road and enjoyed the scenery of the lake and the trees and the bluffs. And by afternoon, oh, he crosses into New York State. New York State. Yeah, man, let's do it. New York is wide. He's nowhere near New York City yet, but he gets into New York State where he recalls the lyrics to a song that I cannot find. But it's lyrics go. It's a blanked long walk to the gay Rialto in New York. Apparently there was probably some vaudeville or show tune or something that was popular. And that is some lyric that came into his mind. And there it shall remain, because I have no idea if somebody knows it's a blank, long walk to the gay Rialto in New York lyrics, what that's from. Let us know. He had to stop there because one of his fork legs broke and walked two miles to Angola, New York, where he wired Chicago for a new pair of forks. So now he's already in Angola, New York, and he's got to wire Chicago, which I guess is closer to New York City, I don't know, for a new pair of forks, which would take two days because they would have to go first by train to Buffalo, New York, and then be rerouted back to Angola, New York, which is really messed up. That's how it had to be done back then because that's the way the railroad was. It makes no sense. Maybe because there was more routes going to Angola. Maybe Angola was once a week and Buffalo was every day. I don't know. His forks broke. This guy's putting up with everything. June 29th, two hours in a repair shop. And the welder did his best with the forks and with limited confidence in the repair, he did make it to Buffalo, New York, by 11 a.m. And then after a post office visit, rode to the E.R. Thomas Automobile and Bicycle Factory, where he met Mr. F.R. Thomas, not E.R., but F.R. Thomas for the first time and received great hospitality, despite George riding the product of a rival maker. So this guy makes motorcycles. He's showing up on a California, but Mr. Thomas had his bike taken inside. Okay, so Mr. Thomas is being good and gregarious to him, takes his bike inside, and has all of his mechanics that work on motorcycles, not some blacksmith that's going to jam brass or bronze pieces in here, crankshaft to center it. These are real mechanics, even engineers that are working on real motorcycles. So he's getting the red carpet treatment here from this Mr. F.R. Thomas. Mr. Thomas had his bike supplied with oil and gasoline, and hearing that the forks were in bad shape, he ordered his men to get to work and make a new pair for it and finish them that night. And man, this guy is, he's a guy in charge. He found the right guy, where the men worked until nine o'clock that night and had them ready for an early morning start. And Mr. Thomas would not accept any payment, and additionally, loaned George an auto buy for a trip about the city. Now, I looked up an auto buy, and it is another odd turn-of-the-century motorcycle gadget. Some of the strange things that crawled out of this Devonian, Permian era of motorcycling. It is a four-wheeled motorcycle, I believe, which is strange. It's very, it's like a cart. Anyways, he loans him one. This guy's got money, and he's throwing around like crazy. He's trying to garner praise, and he's gonna get his name in the history books, and he just did. George, he's traveling around the city in Buffalo on an auto buy that was loaned to him while somebody else works on his bike for a change, and he probably really needs it. June 30, bike is ready as of nine o'clock the night before. 520, he leaves Buffalo, New York, trying to get to New York City by July 2, so he can join. He's already looking forward to another event. He wants to join the Enduran in Worcester, New York, which started on July 3. But after going 10 miles, the belt broke again, so he fitted the original repaired belt from San Francisco, California, so he's had that with him the entire time, and everything went fine for a few miles. Then, the connecting rod broke to the piston. The connecting rod broke to the piston. His piston connecting rod broke, so he had to pedal and went five miles to Batavia, New York, and gets there by nine o'clock in the morning, and it took until 3.30 p.m. to repair the connecting rod. So somehow, they actually were able to repair a connecting rod. I think part of this motorcycle is going to roll across the finish line on its own because he drops it. Anyways, it took until 3.30 p.m. to repair the connecting rod, and everything was okay until he got 12 miles from Rochester, and the valves were acting up, and he couldn't go more than five miles per hour, which is actually not bad because there were entire legs of this trip when five miles per hour would have been a good average, and manages to reach a cycle store in Rochester, New York, and went to work to fix the problem, thinking that he would ride half the night to make up... Now he's trying to ride at night. No. Thinking he would ride half the night to make up lost time, but it was of no use. He ended up working on the engine until 11 o'clock p.m. and gave up until morning and determined that the bike and parts were suffering from crystallization, whatever that means. Hammer hardening? I had to look it up. He's making accuses for the manufacturer so he gets paid. He makes it 80 miles despite the problems and gave up on entering the endurance races, but hoped to make it by July 4th for the fireworks. It took up until 11.30 the next day to get the motor running again and headed out with a man named C.O. Green, superintendent of the Regus Company, and W.L. Stoneburn, the bookkeeper, riding with him as escort, traveling with him 20 miles to Fairport, New York, over roads so muddy they were nearly impassable. Nothing new here. Finally, alone after Fairport, New York, the connecting rod worked loose again and then the belt broke, so he stopped and made repairs and still managed to reach Cayuga, New York, a 70-mile day. We are going to finish this trip. July 1st, 1903, he leaves Cayuga, New York, at 8 a.m. The batteries were getting weak. The eyelets of the belt were getting weak from stretching, and then the belt broke again, and he laces the belt up again, and then the crank axle got out of true. I assume that means the pedal cranks, which caused the belt to break far more often and had trouble all day. Towards the night, the belt broke five times in one mile, five times in one mile. Reaching Syracuse, New York, he got new batteries, but two miles afterwards, they would not spark. Even a new battery can be bad. So he went back and returned them and found good batteries elsewhere in Syracuse, New York. The motor was giving him tons of trouble, and he had lost two days from Rochester, New York, and July 1st and July 2nd were terribly hot. I can relate. It's been about 100 and humid in Chicago lately, not a lot of fun, and he was nearly prostrated by the heat. I guess that means laid flat. He managed to make a total of 65 miles that day and get to Canastota, New York, by 9 30 p.m. On July 2nd, he goes to bed angry. So this was two days. I can't imagine why he went to bed angry. July 3rd, because he lost an additional day to repairs, determined to get to Albany, New York, at least that day, he replaced the belt seven times before noon and spliced it with a new piece of leather at Little Falls, New York. He replaced the belt seven times before noon. Probably repaired, but he says replaced. Still being 40 miles from Albany, his handlebars broke on one side, and he did as before and lashed a stick to the bars, just like before. Soon after that, the pistons began to squeak. Remember how hot it was recently? Metal likes to expand. His pistons begin to squeak, and he found that the rings were worn out. Oil didn't help, so he had to ride with the squeak. This is where we use air plugs in modern times. Turn up the radio. Were the piston rings cracked? Question mark is my question. Six miles from Albany, New York, the rear tire blew out, and the hole was as big as his hand. He walked the six miles to Albany, New York, but somehow he managed to make 135 miles that day. He's getting more problems because he's cooking. The roads are good. He can go fast. So the tires are getting hot. Pistons are getting hot. He's wringing this thing's neck, and now he's got a lot of problems. This is not putting two to two together, but I think this is what's going on here. Going as fast as he possibly could and really stressing the whole machine. Fourth of July. Headed to a bicycle store in Albany, New York. First thing in the morning, got a new tire and 14 spokes, so he's really beating the hell out of this thing, and took the motor apart. Piston rings were super thin, but had to use them. Back on the road at 2.30 p.m., and four miles later, he gave up because the motor would not explode as it should. It's not exploding properly, or maybe it's exploding properly, and went back to the bicycle shop in Albany, New York, and worked on it until night. Proverbial, he said, fuck it, pardon me, and went to see the fireworks and forgot about it for the night. At any point now, he probably should start drinking, even though he doesn't drink. July 5th, after seeing the fireworks the night before, he starts to pedal into New York City. New York, New York. He says, the last 150 miles down the Hudson from Albany is part of my trip, of which I will always have a vivid recollection. I had seen some hills before, but the motor climbed them for me. He must have really fixed this bike. In the hills along the Hudson, I had to climb and push the motor along. They seemed steeper than the Rocky Mountains. I don't know. I've never been there. I've been to Ithaca. The Hudson River scenery was beautiful beyond expectation. I'd like to go there. He pedaled all night of July 5th, but he was seasoned and built to do a, quote, mule's work. July 6th, he rode two days and a night under leg power, so he's pedaling this 90-pound beast, and reaches New York City. He has crossed America in the middle of the afternoon on July 6th. He made frequent stops to rest and attracted a lot of attention, but he was too tired to care. A country reporter called him picturesque with his overalls on, face and hands as black. Okay, this is in quotes. 1903, they were not PC. His overalls on and face and hands as black as a falado. Coat torn and dirty, a big piece of wood tied to the handlebar, and the belt hanging loose. Nice. He was interviewed a little way up the Hudson, and lots of photos were being taken, but all he wanted was a hot bath and a bed. Before any of this, he had to telephone, because he's made it now. He is there. He had to telephone the Motorcycle Magazine to learn where to go and wait for more cameras to point at him before being escorted to the Hostlery, the hotel, at the Herald Square Hotel just 50 days after leaving San Francisco, California. That is the end of that. He leaves the bike. Where is the bike today? This is a question. Where is it? But at that point, he leaves the bike with the New York Motorcycle Club at 1904 Broadway in New York. It had covered over 3,800 miles at least, but the exact distance, he could never know due to all of his broken cyclometers. The New York Motorcycle Club at 1904 Broadway receives this massively historically important vehicle, and nobody knows where it is to this day. Somebody knows where it is.

Brian: All right, Jordan, that was amazing. Man, I wish I could meet George Wyman. But we're not quite done with George. In the next episode, we'll sit down with Jordan Liebman and toast George Wyman with some fine libations. We'll recap George Wyman's trip, and we'll recap its effects on motorcycling and George, and maybe get a glimpse of George's other exploits. Until next time, that wraps it up for this episode of The Riding Obsession.

Neil: Perfect.